Someone recently mentioned having been 'punished' in grammar school by being forced to photocopy pages from a dictionary, saying that they received additional reprimands for pausing to *read* the pages they copied, and it reminded me of my love, as a child, for thumbing through a dictionary for pleasure (and no, i wasn't just looking up the naughty words).

i'm wondering if this was something that many of us have in common? has the love of words been a lifelong passion for all of us?

i remember my favorite word as a very young child being "tergiversate", and i used it every chance i could. i've never heard it used, nor seen it in print, so i'm curious... has anyone else ever encountered this word? anyone use it? it means 'to make use of subterfuge; to be shifty or vacillating'

i've always wondered if i even use it in the right context; i think of it now most often when my children try to wrangle their way out of a sticky situation.

Dear Ste. Bridget: I've seen tergiversation a few times, mostly when someone proud of their vocabulary was really trying to sock it to someone whose talents they did not admire, and wanted to put down for equivocating.(And wanted to humiliate them by making them look it up.)

Yes, I too am guilty of leafing through the dictionary intent on finding one definition and going far abook in my search. I'm sure I'm not the only one here to get so distracted that I forget the word I came to look up in the first place.

My other vice of referentia is "reading" the Atlas. Mine's an oversize National Geographic that I usually peruse in bed (much to my wife's amusement, God bless her!).

Reading the dictionary has always been a joy to me. As I read the posts I put my hand out and it landed on (Surprise!) "The New York Times Everyday Reader's Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, Mispronounced Words."Opened at random and landed on CELATURE (sel'achoore) : the process of embossing metal. Made one more try for a word I might actually have a use for sometime and up came HOMOGRAPH meaning a word spelt but not necessarily sounded in the same way as another, and with a different meaning, as tear to rip, and tear to fill with tears, to cry. Now that's a word I could perhaps find a use for!wow

since I seem to be quoting some of my favorite writers today, herewith is another:

>>"The court's decision in favor of Count Wintergrin," said Himmelfarb, imitating the tired, tiresome archness of Razzia and his euphuistic style, "is a tergiversation for the German people." << Buckley, Stained Glass, p. 68.

I remember reading dictionaries as a kid, the different letters were like chapters in a novel and I remember having my favorites: H, Y and Z. Our Spanish version “tergiversar/tergiversación” is a very common word even in informal conversation. It appears at most angry discussions, in those situations is very common that your opponent tries using your own words against you, at this point we always reply: “¡Estás tergiversando lo que he dicho!/You’re tergiversating what I’ve said!”.I don’t know if this is a case of false friends but, before reading this thread, I wouldn’t have doubted using this word in English.So, what is the correct word to use when someone is making subtle changes on your words or in its intonation in order to change the purported meaning of them?.

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